Sara Martín Alegre P08/04540/02135

2.3. The post-modern novel
Nonetheless, it could be said that the distinguishing mark of the English
post-modern� novel
is its reluctance to totally abandon realism and
its interest in creating a synthesis with other narrative modes, such as
fantasy, autobiography and historiography. At any rate, it is essential to
understand that the coexistence of widely diverging novelistic genres
is the main characteristic of the post-war English novel and, perhaps,
of post-modernism itself.
This may be due to a pragmatic approach to the world of Literature, an
approach that precludes confrontations of the kind that took place between
the Modernists and the Edwardian traditionalists. Possibly, novelists are
aware, above all, of the increasing popularity of the 
audio-visual�narrative
media, which compete with the novel, and would rather secure a place in the
cultural marketplace for the novel in general than for any particular kind of
novel.
A look at the English novel of the period 1975-1990 reveals a healthy state of
affairs, despite the constant warnings about decaying standards. It may be true
that there are not as many memorable characters as in the Victorian novel, but
there are certainly novels that are memorable for their 
complex�architecture
and, often, for their 
wry�humour
.

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© FUOC
• P08/04540/02135
19
Post-War English Literature 1945-1990
Nothing much can be said to unify the work of contemporary English
novelists except the writers' reluctance to see their work as part of any
identifiable school, movement or trend.
Women novelists, such as 
Angela�Carter
or 
Fay�Weldon
, challenge feminist
tenets in their work, thus questioning the idea that women's novels are
necessarily feminist novels.
The work of other novelists such as